Facing the Transcendent
Transcendent species.
Beings slowly beginning to emerge in the Second Ares.
Yet even if they appear in the Second Ares, it's estimated that true hunts will only be possible in the Third Ares.
Hyun-soo and Bahala feel an immense wall.
‘Why now, of all times!’
Bahala with his Sword God's Path quest, Hyun-soo with the chance to make lesser demon Lukio his vassal right before him!
Fortunately, there was a silver lining.
Demon Gremory has cast Sacrificial Descent.
Sacrificial Descent.
In other words, awakening on the surface using her subordinates as vessels.
Demon Gremory's level has been updated!
Demon Gremory is restricted from summoning legion commanders, demons, and demonic beasts to the surface.
However, Demon Gremory's physical strength is preserved.
If successful in hunting Demon Gremory, it will be sealed rather than killed.
Transcendent species. One might think exerting the power of level 604 with its inherent physical strength is meager.
Wrong.
Demon Gremory, true to her epithet "Demon of the Legion Commanders," derives all her power from her army.
When all those forces gather, even formidable demons dare not touch her.
With such an army at her back, a single demon outputting level 600 power is already absurd.
Finally stretching languidly, Gremory smiled with her decadent lips.
"Can't even move from fear?"
Her plain words carried a dissonant tone, like Satan's whisper.
In truth, Hyun-soo and Bahala were frozen by her overwhelming presence.
Bahala's Sword God power reacted as well.
A being beyond even the Sword God.
"Beyond even the Sword God" meant Bahala's current predicament.
Probability of victory: 0%.
Bide your time for the future, and exterminate the evil.
Bahala saw a 0% victory probability for the first time.
Of course, her current power rivaled lesser demon Lukio.
But there was a key difference.
Lukio's fight started with levels matched but 80% HP already shaved off.
Bahala had also gleaned from Hyun-soo that Lukio was once human.
Lukio was strong, but his total HP was only about double that of human legends.
A major flaw of lesser demons.
Gremory was different.
Even now, true Demon Gremory's HP pool was double lesser demon Lukio's.
Her mana reserves would be double too, with far more traits.
Already triggering more status ailments than Lukio was proof.
Bahala, under the massive debuff of utter helplessness, saw no path to victory.
‘What do I do?’
No method in sight.
For the first time playing Ares, she floundered in powerlessness, frustration, and despair.
‘With Gremory guarding him, no chance to finish lesser demon.’
Not even hollow laughter came.
Then.
Swaak-!
“……?”
A crisp slicing sound echoed.
Unlike Bahala, rigid and unable to swing her sword, Hyun-soo overcame it.
Kwaaaang-
Slashed by the Twin Dragon Swords, lesser demon Lukio slammed into the wall and lost consciousness.
Bahala glanced at his arm.
Pop-
His hand, popping open a potion vial in haste, trembled.
He'd moved despite the terror—and if that slash had landed fully, lesser demon Lukio would be dead.
"You gonna keep trolling?"
Hyun-soo, hoping not to be dead weight, pushed through.
Pride of the Master Craftsman
Resists all status ailments.
Contrasting her despair over no path to the Sword God quest, Hyun-soo burned with resolve to claim lesser demon Lukio.
Did 0% not faze him?
No—Bahala learned something new about Hyun-soo today.
He was the type with pride to find a way even in the impossible.
Pop-
Bahala popped a potion too.
‘Thanks.’
She mouthed silently, gulping it down.
Hyun-soo signaled with his eyes.
[Hyun-soo: Buy me time, and I'll...]
Kwaaaang-
That instant, massive demonic energy struck Hyun-soo, sending him flying into a distant wall.
"Like an insect."
Gremory barely spared Hyun-soo a glance.
She sensed human auras.
Even Bahala's felt trivial to her.
Hyun-soo's? Worse than vermin.
"Nothing but empty bravado."
To her eyes, that's all it was.
In utter terror, a weakling resisting first? Pure guts, nothing more.
"Lukio is my masterpiece in the making. I always kept him primed for threats."
Demonic energy trailed with each step, scattering like mist.
"Learned of it recently through an aura threatening to demons. Knew three months back you'd arrive wielding a new Babylon."
As Gremory closed in, tension coiled in Bahala's body.
"But you're just as pathetic. Your quivering eyes, your flesh—all worthless. Only that one Babylon holds value."
She smirked.
But as Bahala's tremors faded, she slammed down her sword arm.
Chwaaak-
He whipped Babylon through the air viciously, reclaiming his pride.
Current Bahala—like Hyun-soo—held unbreakable pride amid impossibility.
Gremory's lips parted.
"I am—"
In that flash, Bahala moved like light.
Swaaak-
The moment he slew the fainted lesser demon, Bahala awakened.
That cracked open the battle's possibility.
"—clinging to mere potential."
Kworrrung-!
Five orbs of condensed demonic energy lashed toward Bahala.
His sword cleaved three.
But the remaining two struck true.
Kwaaaang-!
A massive blast hurled Bahala back.
"I knew it. After killing lesser demon Lukio, you'd scoop up your comrade and flee this place... Hm?"
But Gremory's eyes sharpened.
Enveloped in the explosion, Bahala twisted mid-air, regaining poise.
Sliding like on ice, knee bent, Babylon drawn back.
The reason Gremory deemed current Bahala worthless?
He'd burned all skills to shave 20% of lesser demon's HP, now cooldown-locked.
Yet he channeled the blast's force into blinding speed.
Beyond even Bahala's calculations.
Swaaak-!
Like light, he slashed Gremory's throat.
God-tier control, Sword God caliber. Skill worthy of the title.
Jjuk-
Blood trickled from Gremory's neck.
Her face twisted.
Her prediction had failed.
Bahala seized the opening.
Left, right, up, up.
Sararak, paarat, sugaagagak-!
The players' idol rent Gremory's form with pure normal attacks.
"Kuh."
Her first groan escaped.
Babylon exterminates evil.
Tiny cuts, meager damage—but the colossal energy grated on her.
Kkuuk-
Toes twisting in an instant, from that initial neck graze.
Swaaak-
Seven slashes total.
As they landed, Gremory reflected.
‘...If wielding the full might of the Sword God, that'd be something. I'd have taken real damage. Makes sense—he forged Lukio to that level.’
Candid assessment.
But "assessment" implies appreciating art.
Current Bahala? A mere facsimile of the true Sword God.
Dozens of demonic orbs pierced him first, before his blade.
Kukwakwakwakwa-!
HP plummeting, yet he gripped Babylon tight, slashing her neck once more.
Kwajaaak-!
"I haven't revealed half my power. And you? Haven't taken even a sliver."
Gremory's HP has fallen below 96%.
Bahala's direct normal hits—at least ten.
His blade had clearly lodged in her neck moments ago.
Gremory's status triggered again, deeming him terrified.
But something odd occurred.
Kworuk-
Bahala's fighting spirit unyielding, he drove the sword deeper.
Puddeuk-!
"You said everything but Babylon is worthless."
Gremory clung to that view.
But his next words challenged it.
"Sorry, but Babylon isn't just one sword."
"……!?"
Her mind blanked.
Suddenly, immense energy surged behind her.
The moment she turned—
A man gripped another Babylon, descending from the heavens.
***
Reversal activates.
Gremory had declared: Nothing here but Babylon holds worth.
Hurling back from the blast, Hyun-soo gripped another Babylon in both hands, plummeting from above.
"I'll ask."
"……."
Gremory's smug expression cracked. She recalled her words.
‘Only that one sword, Babylon, holds worth.’
Her own declaration.
And the blood-matted "insect" she'd dismissed.
In an instant, spirit evoking the Sword King erupted. The brown-coated man glared at transcendent Gremory, lips curled.
"I, the maker of Babylon—what manner of being am I?"
"……!!!?!?!?!"
Gremory's mind went blank.
For the first time, it happened.
Gremory, the demon who'd always scorned humanity, overwhelmed by a mere human.
That was—
The first status ailments a demon suffered from human fighting spirit.
Not fear of the wielded Babylon.
Exterminates all evil!
Terror of the human who forged it.